Hey there folks. well, just wanna share a stupid mistake that I made that could've ended really bad for me a while ago. It happened before I joined this forum and certainly before i got my handgun. So "situational awareness" is something I didn't have yet or fully understand about.

Alright, here goes. I was hanging out with wifey at the in-laws - a gated apartment complex on a not so good neighboorhood. Wife's aunt lives in the same complex too. In laws knew some neighboors as well. during dinner, we had a phone call warning us that there's a guy (ethnicity unknown) loitering the parking areas, trying to open car doors and actually trying to break in several housing units. he was basically going door to door trying to find an unlocked door. hearing this, the dad in law, me and her brother got up, grabbed a huge maglite flash light and started to call the rest of the neighboors and the police. I had my 10/22 in the apartment as well (from the range trip several days ago) and loaded it and told my wife to hang on to the rifle.

Phone calls were made and some residents believed the perp was a young male of African American descent (they were wrong btw). I remembered also that I have my paintball pistol in my car, complete with Co2 cartridge and some rubber simunition. I had it in my trunk taking it to a prospectful buyer but it didn't go through. I thought at least an inexperienced BG would flee with the look and sound of a paintball pistol. My car was in the guest parking, away from the living area. But i went ahead and grabbed it ALONE. I loaded it,looked around, put it away in a sling bag, and walked back toward the unit. my hand was on the grip. I was quite alert and was looking around to make sure i didn't get jumped but was surely expecting the wrong person.

On the way back i saw this young Asian fellow, with white flat brimmed hat (rapper style), orange shorts, white skate shoes. forgot what color of shirt he's wearing. He's about 40 ft away. Then he looked at me and walked towards me. I wasn;t expecting an Asian fellow based on the witnesses account so i just kinda oh okay, he's just a nobody - even though he looked a bit "rough". He''s getting closer and his eyes locked towards me. I gripped the pistol tighter, getting ready to draw (which is very stupid if he's armed). I still didn't know what to expect but i didn't change my direction and tried to show no fear and looked at him back. Then i caught him looking at my right forearm and tracing it into the sling bag. I guess he knew I had something in there and that I was not afraid of him. So he veered to the left and walked away. All this time i was like "geez, what an odd fella".

So i made it back to the in laws' and by that time the police had came. By this time the in laws got in contact with most neighboors and had more detailed descriptions on the perp, and guess what....it matched with the guy I bumped into earlier. Man, i just felt a bit lucky that nothing serious happened. The cops patroled the area a bit and didn't find him.

So i guess it wasn;t the brightest of me doing all these stuff but I'm more alert now and believe me i learned my lessons ....i hope.

Anyway, feel free to comment or post similar accounts. later.

Last edited by chuwee81; August 29, 2008 at 04:30 PM.
Reason: spelling